Senator Nugent has introduced a bill that may be a bit of a conundrum for libertarians. SB 11 prohibits property owners, be it an individual, corporation, governmental organization, or otherwise from adopting or enforcing a policy that prohibits an individual from keeping a firearm in the individual’s locked vehicle provided that the individual is otherwise legally entitled to possess a firearm. An exception is made for school property, penal facilities, and certain childcare facilities.
This raises an interesting question for libertarians: whose rights should trump here: The property owner’s right to control his or her real estate, or the gun owner’s right to bear arms and control property rights to his or her vehicle?
To a certain extent, this quandary seems mostly hypothetical. After all, how would you ever enforce such a provision. The gun in the locked vehicle is a little like Schrodinger’s cat in the box; with an unknown status. Or maybe it’s more like the tree falling in the forest with no one to hear. If the car is sealed, it’s tough to know whether there is a gun in there or not until such time as the vehicle becomes unlocked and this legislation no longer applies.
Senator Nugent has also introduced gun legislation in SB 12 which provides simply “A state educational institution may not regulate in any manner the ownership, possession, carrying, or transportation of firearms or ammunition.” Yee-haw!
I wonder why we don’t hear more press about this particular issue. Do I smell conspiracy by the media?
Still, gun laws are touchy so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.